I. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to passive components, and more particularly to the chip-package co-design of RF single-band and multi-band transceivers using high quality embedded passive components in organic substrates for use in radio frequency (RF) applications.
II. Description of Related Art
With a proliferation of wireless standards and applications operating at various frequencies, the need for radio frequency (RF) front-ends and interfaces that support multiple bands (“multi-band”) and multiple protocols (“multimode”) becomes necessary. As an example, a wireless LAN (“WLAN”) device may support IEEE 802.11a/b/g protocols operating at 2.4 GHz or 5.2 GHz. Likewise, a cell phone supporting GSM900, DCS1800 and PCS1900 protocols may operate at 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, or 1900 MHz. Further, with the advent of MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) based systems, optimization for high data rates and high data ranges using spatial and frequency diversity becomes necessary. Thus, there has been an increasing need for devices that are operable with a variety of wireless protocols. Such a need may occur for example, in a situation where voice, video (in the cellular band), and data must be handled by the same cellular device.
Designing multi-band, multi-mode devices such as RF transceivers presents some difficulties in power consumption, compatibility, interference, and integration. For example, the need for the additional design components to support such multi-band, multi-mode capabilities oftentimes presents challenges with power consumption. This may be especially problematic in a portable multi-band, multi-mode device such as a cell phone operating on a battery. The battery life of the cell phone would decrease as the power consumption requirements of the components within the cell phone increase. Further, as many devices continue to decrease in size, the inclusion of additional components becomes increasingly difficult due to problems such as routing, interference, etc. Achieving the required quality factors (Qs) of these components may become more difficult with these size constraints. In addition, the components may have to conform to improved performance characteristics such as high clock speed, low noise, wide bandwidth, and high temperature tolerance.
Therefore, there is a need in the industry for multi-band, multimode RF transceivers that may satisfy one or more of these issues of power consumption, compatibility, interference, and integration.